


Selfless and Reckless

by daymaedoo



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Langst, M/M, established klance, gotta love the druids, klangst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-13 20:43:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14120433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daymaedoo/pseuds/daymaedoo
Summary: One: one person on his mind. He glanced at Pidge and Keith’s ETA. One more minute until-“Showtime.” he whispered.





	Selfless and Reckless

The atmosphere on the ship was tense to say the least. Manic seemed to fit the scene more closely as he watched Allura and Kovalan talk in hushed voices, Shiro standing nearby, listening intently. The time was soon. Lance shivered as he thought of it. Two and a half years in space. A year after Zarkon’s death. Six months since Haggar disappeared. Yet, they’d somehow managed to locate her- ping her in the vast openness of the seventh quadrant. This was it.

The plan was to wormhole into the vicinity. Shiro would remain on the ship and protect the paladins and blades with any cover fire they needed. Pidge and Keith would head out, fully equipped in their invisibility cloaks (Pidge had finally gotten around to installing it on all of the lions, much to Lance’s excitement). Allura, Lance and Hunk were to wait for the all clear before following behind and rushing ahead of the green and black paladins. There, they were to locate Haggar and restrain her- covering her hands with a quintessence absorbing steel like metal- and bring her back to the castle ship and hook her up to the mind meld v.2 to find information on the whereabouts of Prince Lotor before ultimately handing her over to the Blades. To say Lance was psyched was an understatement. With one bad guy marked off his list, he was rearing to strike through another name. Haggar was his. Hunk came behind him and clapped him on his shoulder, grinning like a madman. The two had always shared a mutual excitement in moments like these- moments where they were the heroes, not just the two geeks who were just a tad obsessed with stars and a good game of D&D. With Lance’s flair for the dramatics and Hunk’s ever encouraging, positive nature, the two were a forced to be reckoned with.

“Lance, buddy, this is it!” Hunk burst, tightly squeezing his arm around the Cuban’s shoulders. The shorter boy grinned back, lightly ramming his elbow into his friend’s side.

“Heads are gonna roll today, hermano.” He beamed until Shiro barked for everyone to gather around. The air buzzed with unease and excitement as the silence among the crew stretched out. Allura finally stood and paused, eyes closed, before taking a breath and clenching her fists.

“Today, paladins,” she began, her arms finding their way behind her back, legs shoulder width apart, eyes shining. “Today is the day we relieve our empire from the parasitic hands of Haggar once and for all.” Lance and Hunk cheered and whooped, earning a strong eye roll from Keith but an appreciative smile from the princess.

“In a few minutes, we will wormhole to her ship. Coran is preparing the teludav as we speak. Get to your positions, paladins. It’s an honor going into this mission with you all.” She stated, her voice slightly wavering.

“Well don’t say it like this is the last time you’ll see us?” Lance tried to lighten up the room, but his joke came out more like a question. Allura’s eyes widened, something flashing in them before she shook her head.

“No,” she mumbled. “No, of course not.” She sounded more like she was reassuring herself. “Now get to your lions, paladins. I’ll meet you in the field.” 

Lance headed to Red, the closer he got to the hanger, the more he felt her presence. He felt Blue nudge against the ends of his mind as well while the turmoil built up inside him.

He had deducted three things from Allura’s behavior. Firstly, Allura knew something that she wasn’t sharing with the paladins. Second, she has no clue what the hell force she was dealing with on Haggar’s ship. And finally, whatever was there could, and would kill each and every one of them. But then again, Lance had always tended to leap to the extremes. He shut down his ludicrous accusations before climbing the stairs into Red’s cockpit. Within the next minute, Pidge and Keith were out, weaving their way undetected through the stars.

Lance sat back and counted- something he’d picked up from Shiro at especially stressful times. Five: five paladins, Keith, himself, Allura, Hunk, and Pidge. Four: four constellations before him that he could identify, Camelopardilis, Draco, Lupus, and Reticulum. Three: three lions in the hanger, Red, Blue, and Yellow. Two: two levers before him, the throttle- an extension of his right arm- and the tilt meter- the completion of his left. One: one person on his mind. He glanced at Pidge and Keith’s ETA. One more minute until-

“Showtime.” he whispered. Pidge popped into the corner of his dash, a strong grin on their face.

“You’re good to go.” And off he went, zipping through the vast expanse around him. To Lance, it was impossible to get over the excitement of flying in space. But he buckled down, looking at the stars for, what Allura has led him to believe, his last time. He sucked in a breath and stowed away on Haggar’s ship, equipping his bayard as he hustled out of Red, being sure to raise her particle barrier. He felt Hunk at his back and turned, offering his friend a wide grin before following the map that Pidge had installed in their glorified watches.

They’d followed the faint yellow glow that led them through the sickly lavender hue that was encrusted on the walls.The only sound between the long time friends was the soft rapping of their feet against the cold linoleum of the ship. They’d been creeping through the halls for all of three minutes before the yellow light shifted to an orange, indicating that they were close to their target. Lance took a shaky breath, the nerves in his stomach twisting like a white hot knife had been buried deep within his gut. He felt his armor adjust to the sudden spike in his heart rate and blood pressure. Sharp bursts of cool air broke against his skin in a feeble attempt to get his vitals back into a normal range.

It wasn’t until he’d felt Hunk’s hand fall on his shoulder- the gentle squeeze that his long time friend had given him- that he finally began to find his breath again. He looked up at the Hawaiian, adoration shining in his eyes. Hunk grinned back at the shorter boy before nudging him with his closed fist.

“Let’s go get us a bad guy, my dude.” Hunk cheesed. Lance snorted, rolling his eyes and shaking his head slowly. 

“What a dork.” he mumbled. Hunk’s whine of protest wasn’t lost on him, but when he turned a corner, he lost all bemusement with the conversation. The room he’d stepped into was illuminated with the blinding yellow beams of pure quintessence. The electric feeling of the immense power of the liquid left the hair on his body standing straight up in alert. His eyes widened when he heard Hunk approach him. His best friend- partner in crime. His ride or die. He deliberated how to proceed- what would be his best course of action to get out with their lives. Then, before him, Haggar materialized- making the decision for him. She smiled, a sinister show of teeth. He apologized to any being who cared enough to listen to him at that moment, before spinning on his heel to face his closest friend. With a look of agony in his eyes, he forced his hand out, the heel end digging into the man’s chest, knocking him out of the room and off of his feet. 

“I’ll see you later, buddy.” Lance murmured softly, hoping that Hunk heard. The door slid closed and Lance made a point to shoot the keypad behind it. Allura was right. There would be bloodshed on this mission. But Lance would be damned if somebody got hurt on his watch. 

 

With Hunk screaming, frantically banging on the door, Lance turned back to Haggar, bayard equipped, and assumed his relaxed stance. Fluid, constantly moving- Shiro had compared him to a river often times during training. He hoped that quality would fare well today. Haggar hunched forward, the palms of her hands sparking violently with quintessence.

“That was brave, Blue.” She mused. “Alfor would have done the same thing.” His eyebrows drew together at the information. The lack of knowledge that Haggar had of the current pilot standings left Lance muddled. Perhaps she wasn’t as omnipotent as Allura had made her out to be. He began circling the witch, never relaxing his tense state. Haggar circled with him, dancing opposite of Lance’s gun, flaunting herself in front of him. 

“Shoot me.” She taunted. Lance felt his left index finger tighten on the trigger, feeling it’s cool familiarity. She grinned, once more, the plates on her face cracking to show the grayed Altein skin. He could see the purple line work that crossed her face. He squeezed the trigger, playing with the temptation. 

“Shoot me, Blue.” She hissed. “You can end this.” She grinned, before striking. Lance yelped as the bright string of quintessence whipped at his side, easily slicing through his skin, his muscle. “You can end all of this.” She lashed out again, this time, the beam wrapped around his leg. He fell and writhed on the ground, feeling the nerves in his leg implode on themselves. Lance shot blindly, but Haggar had moved so swiftly to meet the poor boy where he lied that he’d missed her completely. She grabbed him by his neck, lifting him up and pushing her nails into his neck. He went limp as he felt am icy liquid ooze into his bloodstream. She grinned maniacally, face cracking further. She placed her other hand up against the paladins chest. He saw white behind his eyelids. He fell to the ground at her feet.

“What good can Voltron do,” she began as she turned away from him. “What indeed can Voltron do when they are torn apart from the inside out?” Lance, woozy from her encounter, reached and materialized his bayard. He aimed and shot. Moments later he heard a thud on the cold floor.

Heavy breathing filled the room, Haggar whimpered as she pressed her fingers into the wound. She tried to crawl, reaching for the quintessence in her reach. 

But it was too far. 

The last words Lance heard was a faint “Vrepit Sa,” from the opposite side of the room. 

 

Then, he came to, fell straight into Hunk’s arms. He look around him, took in his surroundings. He’d stumbled out of a cryopod. Nothing new. But he felt new. He felt off. 

“Lance!” Hunk yelled, pulling him into a strong embrace. “You did it! You fucking did it!” Hunk hissed. Lance looked at him, bewildered. “You killed Haggar!” Then, as if somebody flipped a switch, suddenly, Hunk’s hug was less inviting and welcome. It felt dangerous. 

“That was a stupid fucking move back there.” Hunk chided. Lance tried to pull away, fear in his eyes. “What, you’re going to run away? Hide from the fact that you alone almost destroyed Voltron?” Lance shook his head slowly, his eyes shining. 

“I,” he started, the words getting stuck in his throat. “I’m sorry. I just- I just didn’t want you to get hurt.” He tilted his head back, trying to blink away the tears threatening to fall.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. It gripped forcefully into his skin. He looked up to find the blackened, angry eyes of his hero, his commander, Shiro. He grit his teeth before growling out the words that stopped Lance in his tracks.

“You should have died right there next to Haggar.”

Lance ripped away from the man’s vice-like grip, stumbling back against the far wall. He backed away from the men he considered friends. His space family. He looked into their eyes full of disgust and anger. He left.

He ran to his room, his skin cold and clammy. He sat on his bed and drew his knees up to his chest. He rocked hollowly, an icy feeling overcoming his body. They were right. He was stupid and reckless. He should never have locked himself in that room with the number one enemy in the universe. He never should have interacted with her. He never should have made it back to this ship. He should have died there, with no one to cry over him. He should died there on some unknown ship with the person he hated the most.

He spiraled downward, for what seemed like years. He didn’t sleep that night. He only watched as the automated lights dimmed, then flickered out- only to relight themselves hours later with the aspects of a new day. The lights had reached their full brightness once more when there was a knock at the door.

Lance made no move to answer it. No one should have to deal with his presence, even if he was summoned. He’d decided that sometime in the dark hours of the night. But the knocking persisted.

“Lance?” He heard. Keith. His rival turned friend, turned partner. Keith. His other half. “Lance, I’m coming in.” The door slid open, revealing a stressed Keith. He tried to put on a smile for his boyfriend, but the obvious lack of energy had shown through. Keith sat in front of him, pulling Lance’s legs into his lap. He gently rubbed his ankle, soothing the boy just like he loved. 

“Whats going on, princess?” Keith hummed. The soft pet-name flowed through Lance like air. He finally breathed for the first time in hours.

Lance leaned into Keith, falling forward to place his forehead onto his shoulder. This was familiar. This was the family that he knew. Keith sighed. “Lance, Coran found something in your scans.” Keith started slowly. 

“We believe you were injected with some sort of serum that can alter your auditory senses.” He whispered. “It’s a form of drug that the Galra used to torture their captures. I think,” he shuddered. “I think that bitch did it to you.” Keith gripped Lance’s ankle tightly. Keith’s eyes twisted closed. “I should have been there.” he grimaced. “I should have killed that bitch, Haggar myself.” 

The switch flipped. 

Keith’s grip felt painful- vindictive. 

“You stole my chance, Lance.” Keith growled. The grip on his leg tightened. “You can’t magically redeem yourself.” He laughed humorlessly. “You’re nothing but the seventh wheel.” Lance felt his heart shrink and fall into his stomach. He felt as if the wind was knocked out of him. Keith got up and rummaged through Lances drawers. He returned with a pen and pad and began furiously writing. He let out a sigh before handing Lance the paper. 

I don’t know what you’re hearing right now, but don’t believe any of it. I love you and we’re going to fix this.

It was written in his messy, rushed, pointed scrawl but the words left a warm feeling in his chest. Keith cautiously reached for his love’s hand, gingerly taking it in his own. 

“We’ll be okay.” Keith whispered. “You’re going to be okay.”

And Lance believed him.

**Author's Note:**

> this is super unrelated to anything but i looked up what verpit sa actually meant and it loosely translates to “onwards” and i thought that was really fitting for haggar and satisfying and i hope if zarkon is ultimately killed (((rip i wrote this before season 5 came out lol))) but she lives on, she’ll try and continue his work but when she fails that’s the last thing she says. like a shout out to the genuine love of her life- the one thing that she cared about. like she could give fuck all about the quintessence. she just wanted to keep him happy because she loves him.
> 
> (im all for more characterization of our antagonists lol)
> 
> anyways, thanks for reading!  
> check out my tumblr!  
> langstexmachina.tumblr.com


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